LIFE-CYCLE ASSESSMENT AND ECONOMIC-EVALUATION OF RECYCLING - A CASE-STUDY

Recycling is widely assumed to be environmentally beneficial, although the collection, sorting and processing of materials into new products also entails significant environmental impacts. This study compares t he relative environmental impacts of a recycling system (incorporating the kerbside collection of recyclable materials and their subsequent use by manufacturers), with a waste disposal system (in which the wast e is disposed to landfill and primary raw materials are used in manufa cture), using the technique of lifecycle assessment. The methodology i s then extended to incorporate an economic evaluation of the environme ntal impacts. This combination of lifecycle assessment and economic ev aluation can be termed 'Lifecycle Evaluation'. Lifecycle assessment qu antifies and evaluates the environmental impacts of a product from the acquisition of raw materials, through manufacture and use, to final d isposal. Lifecycle assessment can also provide a framework for the ana lysis of environmental impacts from systems such as transport, or wast e management, as demonstrated in this paper. The results, for a case s tudy of Milton Keynes in Central England, show that the recycling syst em generally performs better than the waste disposal system in terms o f contribution to global warming, acidification effects and nutrificat ion of surface water. An alternative method of analysis is then used, in which an economic valuation of the environmental impacts is carried out. This produces net benefits for recycling, per tonne of material, of pound 1769 for aluminium, pound 238 for steel, pound 226 for paper and pound 188 for glass, and net costs of pound 2.57 for high density polyethylene (HDPE), pound 4.10 for poly (vinyl chloride) (PVC) and p ound 7.28 for poly (ethylene terephthalate) (PET). It is concluded tha t lifecycle evaluation, the combination of lifecycle assessment and ec onomic valuation, can be applied to a variety of waste management issu es such as the appraisal of alternative methods of collection for recy cling or an examination of the UK waste management hierarchy. This tec hnique allows impacts to be expressed in homogenous units, and the inc lusion of social and environmental impacts that would not normally be addressed within a lifecycle assessment. The approach would also facil itate the evaluation of environmental and social effects at a local le vel, which are particularly crucial to the success of community recycl ing schemes. Lifecycle evaluation could provide a powerful tool to aid the development of sustainable waste management and recycling policy.